The year 2025 will be an exciting one in human resources. The convergence of artificial intelligence, an increasingly global and flexible talent pool, and improved data analytics will give companies more opportunities than ever before to evolve their talent strategy and operating models to be more effective and efficient.
Here are five trends to watch, along with some companies and technologies leading the way as you plan your strategy for the next year:
AI will continue to provide increased opportunities for human resources teams across all aspects of people operations: talent acquisition, employee development, performance assessments, and more. The first round of AI was focused on automating many routine tasks and “first tier” employee services traditionally done by operational human resources personnel with customized chatbot services, but real opportunities are emerging in other areas.
The talent acquisition space is likely to see the most ongoing transformation: for example, LinkedIn talent solutions is now using AI algorithms to match job seekers with opportunities, recommending candidates to recruiters and vice versa. The days for hunting for a job may soon be less manual and more about being “served” opportunities both as candidates and companies. There are services that offer AI video interviewing combined with natural language processing to evaluate candidates, while others offer neuroscience-based games that assess cognitive and emotional traits and can be used to remove bias from hiring processes.
Other AI applications gaining popularity are onboarding platforms; sentiment analysis engagement surveys; enrollment, payroll, and compliance tools; and virtual assistants that provide support for routine tasks (submitting time-off requests, pay stubs, policy questions, etc.).
Recruiting remote employees from international locations, a trend that began to take off in 2024, will continue to gain steam as companies increasingly find saturated markets like the U.S. difficult to hire talent from because of budget pressures or time constraints to fill roles.
Lower wages are not the only driver of the trend. Employers can also receive government subsidies when hiring overseas thanks to increasing incentives policies as emerging economies look to attract more foreign investment. Many of these countries have significant populations of young, hard-working, tech-savvy citizens with improved education (especially STEM fields), enabling a variety of companies large and small to fill vacancies from a larger talent pool of global workers.
Poland’s strong focus on STEM education has attracted a large presence from Google, Microsoft, IBM, and others. Mexico’s increasing “nearshoring” concept for U.S. companies has attracted software developers, AI firms, and digital transformation services to urban areas like Mexico City and Guadalajara. Vietnam is a trendy alternative to China and India among a growing number of tech startups and outsourcing firms. Kenya—the “Silicon Savanna”—has turned Nairobi into a growing tech hub for fintech, mobile apps, agri-tech solutions, and other employers in a young, tech-savvy workforce.
AI, more advanced data management, and improved employee marketing technologies are helping companies customize the offerings, benefits, and services they provide to employees based on their personal needs, professional development needs, and life stages. On the development front, customized, AI-driven learning paths use AI to analyze an employee’s role, skill gaps, and career goals to recommend specific learning resources, courses, and development opportunities. From there, teams are using role-based training to create tailored learning paths focused on upskilling employees based on individual career ambitions. For example, Mastercard’s “Build Your Own Career” program includes a wide range of skills. Unilever’s “Flex Experiences” (an internal gig platform) shows employees how to take on short-term projects within the company to develop new skills or work in different areas that interest them.
Personalized health and wellness tools have moved beyond a one-size-fits-all model to look at an employee’s health conditions, preferences, lifestyle, and stage of life to create a more useful employee benefit. Customizable benefits packages such as Adobe’s—in which employees choose from childcare support, fitness stipends, mental health, elder care, etc.—are designed to cater to employees at all stages of life. Dell’s connected workplace strategy, in which employees can customize work schedules and locations to accommodate personal lives and work styles, offers an interesting model for asynchronous work teams.
Big data continues to yield actionable insights to the HR industry. Among the most popular applications heading into 2025: Predictive analytics that can forecast trends like turnover and performance (which up to this point have been in place but somewhat rudimentary); people analytics that look at demographics, engagement, and skill gaps; and recruiting analytics to better match candidates with needs.
Companies are increasingly leveraging gig economy freelancers, contractors, and contingent workers to help access talent on demand, reduce costs, and increase flexibility. The gig economy hasn’t replaced the traditional corporate structure altogether, but more and more employers are utilizing temporary workers to help with short-term projects and to fill skill gaps quickly, especially in highly specialized fields.
.Jesse Meschuk is a Human Capital Advisor, and career and HR expert with more than 20 years of consulting and human resources experience. Jesse specializes in helping companies define and execute their human capital strategy across the entire employee value proposition in a wide variety of industries including technology, entertainment, gaming, retail, hospitality, manufacturing, and sports.
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